After the Pistons bought out Blake Griffin’s contract a couple of days ago, Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted out that Griffin had decided to join the Brooklyn Nets for the rest of the 2020-2021 NBA season. The Nets are using one of their veteran minimum-contract slots to acquire Griffin, paying him $5.9 million for the rest of the season due to the mid-level exception. As the Brooklyn Nets have three MVP contracts, they are in the luxury tax, and can’t afford to pay Griffin more. Money is clearly not a motive for this move, as Griffin will be earning $29.8 million from the Pistons for the rest of the season. His current net worth from his NBA career stands around $250 million. On the season, Griffin is averaging 12.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists this season.
This move will do a couple of things for the Nets, and for Griffin. For one, it reunites Griffin with his old friend and Lob City partner from the Los Angeles Clippers, DeAndre Jordan. While Jordan is still getting up and throwing down dunks, Griffin has not dunked once this entire season. Injuries have forced Griffin into becoming a perimeter, small ball center, rather then the power forward beast in the paint he used to be.
The second thing this move does is give Griffin a chance to win a ring. Griffin, at the old (in NBA terms) age of 31, has not yet won a championship. The closest he ever got was Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals, and that was with a near-prime Chris Paul and prime DeAndre Jordan. Now, Griffin is surrounded by some of the best scorers in the NBA… Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant. The Nets are the favorite to win the Eastern Conference, and even though Griffin is past his prime, he’s still a good starter and can provide some much needed defense.
Many contenders, such as the Lakers, Clippers, Heat, and Warriors, were vying for Griffin’s services. So now that the Nets have an asset that many teams wanted (and in some cases were relying on getting), it only makes their championship case stronger, and the other teams’ weaker.
How will Blake Griffin play with his new teammates? Will he ever dunk again? Will the Nets be 2021 NBA Champions? We won’t know until the end of the season, but there is no doubt that the Brooklyn Nets will be fun to watch. Don’t forget to follow the NBA Blog, and as always, have an awesome day!
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With a potential championship in sight and surrounded by Irving, Harden and Durant, I think Blake Griffin will be motivated to rise to the occasion. If for no other reason, to prove he deserves to be in there with the best. Assuming no ankle, knee, or hip injuries I think we will see Griffin dunk again, just to show he can. While watching the All-Star game it was interesting to see how LeBron responded after Zion Williamson or one of his own teammates dunked the ball LeBron would race down the court, ball in hand and he performed one of his own dunks. Point being the inner athletic competitor in Griffin will surface and he will dunk again, maybe not consistently, but occasionally. As far as the NETS are concerned, there are so many talented teams in the league, Jazz, Lakers, Heat, Wizards, just to name a few. It’s hard to predict if they will win the 2021 NBA championship, but barring injuries they certainly have a better than average chance to win it all.
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